She was hit by a Ford Ranger while attempting to cross the street behind the bus, according to Hamilton County sheriff's deputies. She was not crossing in a crosswalk.

The pickup was driven by Jim Knight, 45, of the 300 block of Circle Drive of Mason. He was not injured. The accident remained under investigation Saturday evening. Deputies said alcohol and drugs were not a factor in the accident.

Police seek robber of Queensgate Frisch's

Cincinnati police were searching Saturday night for a man who robbed the Frisch's Big Boy Restaurant in Queensgate.

About 7:30 p.m. the man, who had been eating at the restaurant, approached the counter as though to pay his bill. He handed the cashier a note that said he had a gun, but no weapon was displayed.

Police with dogs searched the area around the Gest Street restaurant, but no one had been arrested as of Saturday night.

Intergroup program is for educators

School administrators are invited to a Hands Across the Campus workshop designed to improve intergroup understanding in secondary schools.

The workshop, presented by the American Jewish Committee and Cincinnati Museum Center, will be held from 8:30 a.m.-2:30 p.m. Monday at the museum center, 1301 Western Ave.

Diversity trainer Matt Hauer, social studies chairman at Bloomingdale High School in Tampa, Fla., will demonstrate effective communications within the school and will present multicultural material for the existing curriculum.

Noontime luncheon speaker will be Dr. John Fleming, vice president for museums. Participants will tour the new exhibit Civil Unrest in Cincinnati: Voices of Our Community.

Hands Across the Campus was developed by the American Jewish Committee to promote tolerance in secondary schools. Seven Catholic and four public high schools in Cincinnati collaborate in Hands Across the Campus programs.

To register for the workshop, call 621-4020.

Children's hospitals expanding facilities

Even as Cincinnati's Children's Hospital Medical Center  the third-biggest pediatric research center in the country  completes a $160 million expansion, one of its competitors has begun an even bigger expansion.

The Children's Hospital of Philadelphia  No. 2 on the federal research money list for pediatric centers  has a five-year, $650 million project, which will nearly double the size of the hospital's main campus, and create about 1,000 hospital jobs.

In Cincinnati, Children's Hospital officials are planning a $50 million research expansion to be complete in 2006. This follows $160 million spent for a new clinical-care tower, a research wing, an education center and a parking garage.

Legal bills dominant in death row expense

COLUMBUS  Figures from lawyers indicate it cost taxpayers more than $500,000 to execute Jay D. Scott in June, with much of that expense coming in the past eight months.

Legal fees for that period cost about $200,000, the Columbus Dispatch reported Saturday.

Mr. Scott, 48, was executed by injection on June 14 for the 1983 murder of Cleveland delicatessen owner Vinney Prince.

Attorney General Betty Montgomery's office said had it spent about $130,000 since November to argue for Mr. Scott's death sentence. Private attorneys billed taxpayers an additional $65,000 in their effort to save Mr. Scott.

Mr. Scott's execution occurred after two scheduled executions were halted at the last minute by judges in April and May.

Preparing Mr. Scott for execution three times cost about $27,000 in staffing and supplies, including $122.80 for the mix of three drugs that killed him and $67.10 for the tubing that sent the drugs into his body.

Mr. Scott was sent to death row in 1986. Ohio prison officials said it cost taxpayers about $167,000 to imprison him since 1991, the earliest that such figures were available.

An organization that tracks death penalty expenses said life sentences generally are less expensive than the legal costs associated with capital punishment.

At $20,000 a year, it costs $800,000 to imprison an inmate for an average 40 years, according to the Death Penalty Information Center in Washington. Center spokeswoman Paula Bernstein said capital-punishment legal battles can cost as much as $2 million.